The air seal valve of the present invention is an improvement on the valve disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,422, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Incinerators are widely used to increase the temperature of process emissions to a temperature above the ignition temperature of combustible contaminants therein so as to oxidize the contaminants. Leakage of contaminated emissions past the relatively large flow control valves required for control of fluid flow to and from the incinerators cannot be tolerated. As disclosed in the aforesaid patent, such flow control valves selectively direct the emissions into one or more regenerators or high temperature combustion chambers, or vent the flow of decontaminated gases to atmosphere. Leakage the flow control valves seriously comprises the efficiency of the incinerator system and may result in significant air pollution.